Vista
Can someone share insight on life at Vista for associates?
WLB / comp / culture / perks? SF office if possible
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LOL everyone got that msg today need that and probably only looking to hire one or two. May the odds be ever in your favor …
what msg ??
Worked on a bunch of deals with them - seem super sharp but definitely sweaty. Strong shop for good PE experience and they definitely compete with a lot of more widely known MF names outside of TMT. Imagine interview experience to work there is pretty technical.
Good fund, Robert Smith is definitely a larger than life individual. Having the opportunity to live in Austin which is a vibrant youthful city is def nice too. That said, I think the biggest draw back to why I was turned off from it was comp. Associate 1 comp hovers around the 250k mark all in. That's basically 100k off most MFs (ex. TB pays 350 all in). Sure there is the argument that living in Texas makes up for some of it, but Austin isn't necessarily all that less expensive than say NYC or SF. That argument gets further convoluted when you consider that pay is flat agnostic of location so those in NYC and SF are getting double fucked.
I enjoyed talking to the folks there not just in recruitment but even prior through work or networking. Hard to pinpoint WLB or culture for such a large fund. Perks, standard travel and keep your points deal, one added caveat is that Robert Smith is rumored to be the front runner to buy the Denver Broncos so broncos box tickets???
Good insight.. thank you.
This is a tad bit inaccurate. Vista does not do PE out of NYC, they only do PE in Austin, SF, and Chicago.
Secondly, all of us work in finance and forget basic finance and economic principles. There is a difference between real and nominal. According to Nerd Wallet and CNN, the equivalent of 250k in Austin is 600k+ in Manhattan.
Thirdly, you can't evaluate gross income apples to apples to firms based in SF or NYC. 350k after-tax in NYC is 207k. 250k after-tax in Austin is 179k. That's only a 28k difference in a significantly cheaper city. Austin is getting more expensive, but it's nowhere near SF or NYC.
If you declined an offer from Vista due to gross compensation and not the net compensation and didn't factor in COL, you'd be a fool.
Visited Austin two months ago as much of my family lives there. COL has skyrocked in recent years. Coffee is the same 5-6 dollars as NYC and rent for a 1B is 2k+. It used to be just Westlake that was expensive. Now with the influx of tech all housing is going through the roof. Add in the need for a car, gas, and COL is realistically the same. Austin isn't West Texas unfortunately. Basically LA at this point with fewer motive stars and homeless people. Matcha Lattes per capita is the same.
Where did you get 250k from? I heard it was 350
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